I'm really liking the SmartControl. It gives the user flexibilitylike no other shower valve. It's options like these that keep quality buyers in your showroom – and away from big box and online resellers.

With this flexibility comes control of water. Unlike many other systems, you can accurately control both temperature and flow rate in a CalGreen and CEC-compliant shower design with up to three shower outlets. Yep, that's right.But with great flexibility comes great responsibility: the responsibility to make sure that the installer has the tools needed to do the job correctly and the customer is happy with how their system is working. And you can do it.

Grohe ships complete installation instructions with both the rough-in box, and the trimset. More, um- careful plumbers don’t need to be told to read the instructions, but we don’t always have a careful plumber on every job. You can advise your customer that the plumber needs to read both sets of instructions, and to reach out to you (or us!) with any questions.

Here’s a link to installation instructions for the 35601 SmartBox. These instructions come in some popular languages, including English, French, Spanish, and “Picture." Page 8 (picture 6) shows the installer removing the test plate from the SmartBox, inserting two check valves (‘Y’) into the the test plate, and then reinstalling the test plate before turning-on the water (page 9, picture 7).

No matter the language, this seems like a lot of (redundant) work, especially in “Picture.” Why the heck does Grohe want the installer to do each of these steps? Well, let me tell you – it's a good reason and has to do with preventing cross-mixing and toilets flushing hot water and chaos and mayhem.

In other words, the installer most definitely will want to read the instructions, and it doesn't hurt for you to be a little familiar with them too. Let's give it a try.